


Cigarettes & Coffee

by Birdfluff



Series: What Could Have Been [2]
Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Blood Kink, Canon-Typical Violence, Feral Behavior, M/M, Port Touching, Recreational Drug Use, Shotgunning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-21
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2020-12-31 08:10:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21125738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Birdfluff/pseuds/Birdfluff
Summary: Vaughn's ingrained Pandoran instincts makes readjusting to life as an accountant much more difficult than he thought.





	Cigarettes & Coffee

Today marked Vaughn’s first official week working for Rhys, so he was a little nerveracked. Even though Rhys was his boss, Vaughn felt guilty for letting Rhys put him so high up the corporate ladder. He did give him a test first of what was required for the job and the bandit surprised himself by passing with flying colors. He earned this, but he didn’t like it. It was like a disadvantage to his new coworkers. Some new guy out of nowhere claiming to be the CEO’s boyfriend takes over being head of the department. Maybe not the head, but he was one of the assistant managers, but it was close. He didn’t even rank that high at Hyperion.

Rhys even replaced his old glasses with Atlas tech and holo-gloves to go with it. When he was escorted to his new office, Vaughn was astonished by how big it was. He had a beautiful standing desk and the comfiest chair he had ever sat in. Rhys even supplied him with an exercise bike and dumbbells, which the bandit grew flustered over. He didn’t think Rhys would remember him saying that he used to exercise in his old office. It was sweet. But it was missing something. He realized he could decorate it however way he saw fit, which gave him plenty of ideas.

During breaks, he slipped through the Fast Travel System to Sanctuary III and dug through his belongings, shoved them in a box, and hauled back to Promethea, giggling with glee as he did so. That’s when he remembered that he was pretty good at multitasking. He took off one of his nice expensive gloves so he could effectively paint while he carried on with his work with the other. He had missed the texture of the liquid between his fingers.  
He was a little disappointed when the Crimson Raiders designed and painted Lilith’s Firehawk mural on the ship without asking for his help. He didn’t blame them, though. They had no idea he was behind the Sun Smasher graffiti on Pandora. His art style was more simplistic and cartoony than what the Raiders were going for anyway.

As he was finishing off the wings, he heard the door swing open. “Hey, Vaughn, Rhys sent me to cheeee-- Wha… what is all this...?!”

Vaughn looked and saw Lorelei going through the boxes he left by the door. He smiled as he continued with his mural. “You like it? I felt like this place was missing a bit of, like, Pandora charm to it, you know? When I’m all done, it’ll make all this gray and chrome feel more homey. Do you know about feng shui? I’ve read a little bit on it-- do you think the bloody skull should be on the south west side or east? Also which way is where, that should have been my first question.”

“Um, Vaughn?”

“Yeah?”

“Most of these… whatever these are you got here are against regulation.”

Vaughn stopped. “They are?”

“Yeah, uh, these are covered in blood and blood attracts ratches. The bastards got noses like hounds and we’ve already had some accidents with them in R&D.”

The bandit awkwardly stepped down from his stool. “Oh, uh, I-- I had no idea.”

“I know you didn’t. Rhys just tossed you into this without telling you all the rules here. Don’t worry too much about it, it takes like a solid month to get used to everything. You’re going to have to throw all this a-- Holy...” She finally saw the mural and her jaw dropped.

“Is, is this against regulations too?”

“Not that I’ve seen. No one’s gone crazy with a paint bucket yet, but… damn, is that Rhys? Are those wings coming out of him?”

“Y-yeah! It’s because he, uh, rose like a phoenix, right?” He laughed nervously, wiping the paint off his hand with a towel. He kept his back to her and gritted his teeth. “I, uh, designed it, traced it first and then painted over it. My lunch is late because of that but um… it was worth it.”

“No kidding.” Lorelei gawked in amazement. “All by yourself too?”

He glanced at her then at the wall. “Yyyyup.”

“Can I take a pic of it?”

“What?”

“I’m about to head into a meeting with Rhys. I think he’ll love this. Go on, stand in front of it.” She gestured as she readied her ECHO. Assuming he wasn’t allowed to say no, Vaughn acquiesced and shyly smiled for the shot. “Nice! You’ve got some real talent, Vaughn.”

“Skill.” Vaughn quietly corrected. “I’ve been doing this for seven years. I’m sorry?”

“I said, make sure to put all that in the garbage shoot.” She knocked on the metal door that was attached to the wall before leaving his office. “Later.”

“Later...” He trudged over to the boxes of his belongings and knelt down. “They aren’t garbage...”

Everything in that cardboard container was his past life, a fragment of his bandit king self. That part of him didn’t exist anymore, a part of his brain echoed that gave him a chill. He was a bit of a king here, an assistant king. He spent his morning receiving and giving instructions. It wasn’t the same. Rhys was pretty much an emperor here and Vaughn couldn’t help feeling jealous of that. His boyfriend was living his best life while his little bro was trying his best to keep up. Vaughn shook his head. It was his first day. There was no need for him to think like this.

His hands shook but he didn’t reach for the boxes. He quickly closed the door and locked it, closing the blinds. He leaned against the wood, gazing from what his ECHOglasses identified as junk to where they belong. Vaughn hung his head and sucked in a deep breath.

“You have to do this. You can still paint. You can find other stuff to decorate with. You know. New memories to replace the old… that I don’t want to replace.” He glared at the skull, that wasn’t facing him. “What are you looking at? I’m not ashamed of my past! I have bandit pride, dammit! And I stand by that… I can’t keep one thing in there, can I? Washing the blood off would make it all too different.”

Lorelei looked disgusted when she saw what he slipped under the radar. Sure, being a bandit wasn’t high class like Atlas, but no one cared on Pandora. They were all too highly radiated and insane to care about appearances. Vaughn surveyed his new attire. He chose it to mimic his old outfit with the see-through shirt and long billowing jacket that fell behind him like his cape that he missed dearly. He missed Pandora.

“It’s hasn’t even been a day yet.” Vaughn reminded himself, taking off his glasses to wipe his face. “This isn’t the end of the world… and yet it really feels like it is. It feels like I’m throwing my life away... Goddammit.”

He picked up one of the two boxes, opened the metal hinge, and shoved the contents down the hatch. As he watched it tumble down, his legs caved in and he fell onto his hands as tears poured down his face.

“No, no! Sun Smashers don’t cry…!” When he realized what he said he slapped himself on the cheek. “Oh, fuck me. Stop crying… Stop--!”  
He squeaked in horror at his glasses turning a shade of red as whiite letters spelled out in front of him: ‘You are needed in Rhys Strongforks’ Office’. Perfect. He swallowed his sorrows and pushed the last box into the shoot, which he had trouble with because the box was bigger than the last. The universe just want to spite him today. He cleaned up his face and dashed out of his office and towards the elevator.

His continued to straighten every bit of his clothing as the lift travelled upward. He checked his watch approximately eight times. As another tear tried to escape, he clawed it out with his fingers.

“You can’t cry in front of him, you asshole. He’s in a meeting with important people and I’ve already embarrassed myself enough today with my stupid garbage.”

When the elevator stopped, he shoved his way through the plants and stumbled when he noticed Rhys was not in his office chair. He and Lorelei were sitting on the couch in front of the giant aquarium, that leaves Vaughn breathless every time he saw it. All the blood in his body drained down to his feet as Rhys addressed him, not once removing his gaze from the ECHO.

“Bro, this is amazing! This was all you? No one else was behind this?”

He cleared his throat when he heard it crack. “Nope, all me.”

“That’s awesome, man. You gave me wings! That’s rad!” He exclaimed, standing up and crossing over to him with eyes glued to the screen. “You know what I’m thinking? This would look sweet on maybe some mugs or posters. Do you mind if we do that? I’ll pay you for it, obviously.”

“No!” He blurted out in a shrill tone and he instantly covered his mouth. He avoided his and Lorelei’s stunned expressions by keeping his eyes down. “I-I mean, nnno, you’ve already given me so much already. Be--besides! It’s not even done yet. I still have to add shading when it’s done drying and then there’s...”

Rhys tilted his head up by his chin and lightly kissed the edge of his mouth. “Let me spoil you, bro...”

His smile fell away when he looked into his eyes. Before Vaughn could pull away, the CEO grabbed him with his cybernetic hand and led him through the aquarium, acting casual. “Come with me for a sec, okay? It’ll be quick. I just think it would be, like, really cool to have your art posted up, I mean, when you’re done with the finishing touches and whatnot.”

“Rhys, please, I don’t want--”

Rhys hushed him. He glanced over his shoulder and stopped their walk.

“What are you doing?”

Removing his glasses, Rhys leaned down a little and squinted at his face. As his ECHOeye lit up, Vaughn jerked away from him and hung his head in shame. The CEO gave him a surprised frown. “Have-- have you been crying?”

“No.” He could feel the tears coming on and he had to fight himself from touching his eyes.

“Vaughn.” The intensity in his voice made his heart skip a beat.

Unwillingly, he looked to his direction with a pout and tried to concentrate on the exotic fish in the tank.

Rhys forced him to make eye contact by touching his cheeks. His heart fluttered again at his stoic face as he combined it with a low grim tone. “Who hurt you. Give me their names.”

“Nnnno one did anything, Rhys. This is all my fault.”

“What is?”

“I brought some of my stuff here from Pandora to decorate my office… and all of them are against regulation because they all had some blood. So I-I had to throw them away. And it hurt… a lot. They were part of me. It was like I was throwing myself away.”

“I know who made that rule...” He put his hands on his hips and shook his head at the air. “Rhys Strongfork, that bitch. He’s always on that damn high horse.”

“Are you okay, Rhys?” Vaughn asked, on a wisp of a laugh.

“I’m just trying to get you to smile. Did it work?”

“A little, but don’t call yourself a bitch. That’s mean.”

“I can be a bitch though, a huge whiney bitch who doesn’t know when to shut that giant mouth of his. Like, oh my god, can he stop talking for five minutes--Heeey! Theeere’s a smile. See? You know I’m right.” He pulled the bandit into a hug and squeezed him. “I am sorry that you had to throw your stuff away. No one here really appreciates the artisan and smell of blood like you do. They’re just uncultured swine, pay them no mind.”

Vaughn snorted.

“But on a serious note, it’s for safety reasons.”

“I know.”

“I’m sorry I can’t really change it.”

“It’s… It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not.” He gave him a chaste kiss on his neck as he pulled away and squeezed his hands. “If it makes you feel any better, you’re still a bandit king in my heart.”

“Thanks, bro. That means a lot.”

“And I know you don’t want me to do anything with your painting. But ah, if you do make more, can you send them to me? I wanna see them.”

The bandit finally smiled. “Totally, bro.”

“Cool. Like, seriously. Your stuff is awesome. I love it” 

“Thank you. You’re sweet.”

Vaughn adored how the CEO rocked in the balls on his feet and wiggled his shoulders when Rhys felt extra giddy. His boyfriend was adorable. He ran his hand through his hair. “So, ah, I’ll… I’ll see you tonight, bro.”

“Okay, bro, see ya.”

It was slightly awkward since they were both walking in the same direction without saying anything but Rhys made the most of it by lightly tapping his butt before darting over to Lorelei and sitting down with a smug smile that dared to peak as he addressed her. Vaughn opened his mouth and pointed at him to call him out but he thought against it as a different and better idea popped into his head. 

“Bye, Lorelei.” He said with a wave.

“Bye Vaughn!”

It was after ten when Vaughn clocked out. His mural needed some more time to dry so he had been hyper focused on his work (and braked to workout occasionally) for the remainder of the day that he lost track of time. His numbers distracted him from how dislocated and foreign his office was. He had forgotten how much of a flow he gets into when it comes to math that it’s hard for him to stop. His new glasses and gloves were a tremendous aid as well. He would have to thank Rhys again, since they were made especially for him. He left his office feeling satisfied and somewhat tired.

It brought him back to working with Hyperion. Rhys and Vaughn didn’t get to room together, unfortunately. Everything was assigned to them. That didn’t stop Rhys’ roommate from never coming back to their apartment. He felt sheepish to think back on how it became a ritual for Vaughn to come over once a week to spend the night with Rhys. They would watch movies and play video games, talk and laugh for hours until three in the morning. Vaughn would steal his roommate’s bed and neither of them would fall asleep until an hour later because they kept talking. Rhys kept talking. When sleep deprived, it was like his motor never ran out of gas. It led to them having some meaningful conversations that would never have in public. It eventually led to Vaughn coming out to him. He recalled how it didn’t even surprise Rhys when he did it. He just said, very sleepily, ‘yeah, I know.’ and the conversation ended there.

And Rhys never treated him differently. He didn’t make it weird or asked any questions that were too personal. Their ritual continued every week but every time Vaughn came over and the two embraced, the hug would be longer than the last. Vaughn knew why now.

Stepping into Rhys’ bedroom, he heard water running beyond the bathroom door. That gave him time to prepare without Rhys giving him aroused looks, like he did this morning. That sent his mind drifting to their time last night. It was their official first night together and it was absolutely divine even with the awkward parts that they laughed through. He swayed a little when he recalled how Rhys grabbed him whenever he fingered his port, pleading to not stop. He learned a lot about his boyfriend that night and he was sure that could be said vice versa. 

In the middle of it, Vaughn’s feral nature kicked in from the excitement that he had to physically hold himself back when his movements became more violent. Thankfully, it didn’t scare Rhys when he was biting down on him too hard. They took a break and the CEO stroked along his spine as he cradled the bandit. He apologized profusely while he cleaned up the blood but to his surprise Rhys laughed. Vaughn didn’t tell him the whole truth that day, about how he acts when he gets too riled up or overstimulated. He didn’t want to hurt him like that again. If something like that were to happen again any time soon, he needed to get a better grip on his behavior, but he wasn’t sure how. 

In the midst of his thinking, he found himself in Rhys’ closet, touching a plaid shirt that was longer than his torso. Usually, by himself, Vaughn slept in the nude but considering how Rhys reacts when he glances at his chest… as much as Vaughn loved to be ogled at, he should wear something to sleep. With the thought that Rhys wouldn’t mind, he stripped down and gently took the shirt off its hanger. The overwhelming smell of the CEO captured his heart when he pulled it over his head. It wasn’t that old Hyperion body spray he used to bathe in, which made Vaughn and Yvette choke on occasion. This was an oder Vaughn wasn’t familiar with but it was lovely. The cotton felt lovely on his skin too. He pulled the collar up so he could be enraptured in it’s scent again.

“Vaughn?”

With a yelp, the bandit looked up. Rhys was, thankfully, dressed and in _silks_ that hugged his arms. He was in the middle of scrubbing his hair with a towel when he saw the bandit. Vaughn patted the shirt back down in hopes that nothing showed. “Uh, heeeeyyy, broooo. Did you uhhh, have a… nice… shower?”

That smug smile was on his lips again. He finished drying off his hair and carelessly tossed into the bathroom. 

“Mmmhm.” Rhys lounged on top of the bed, propped his head up with his arm, and rubbed the space beside him, inviting him in. The glint in his eye held a form of mischief that Vaughn began to fall for. “Good. How was your day?”

As he joined alongside him, he kept his hands to himself, resting them on top of each other upon his chest. “A little overwhelming, but that’s normal. Oh! I want to thank you for these.” He said as he took off his gloves. “I have never touched a hologram before.”

“It’s pretty cool, huh?”

“Totally. I know this is kind of weird, but I had fun. I was totally enjoying myself today. And um, I’ll probably finish the mural tomorrow. I want to paint more but as you said people think the COV and normal bandits are the same thing nowadays and I don’t want to scare anyone.”

“You can make it abstract enough and no one will know the difference.”

“Eh, I could never get into abstract. I like structure too much.”

“Art isn’t exactly a field of structure.”

“Nooo, it’s not, but it was something for me to do with my hands on Pandora, since I couldn’t… do anything like I am right now. I miss my bloody skull.”

“Oh, did you make it out of paper mache?”

“No, it was a real skull. I just kind of drowned it in colors so it didn’t really look all that great. And then I got blood on it but it really added to what I was going for, so I kept it around.”

“How did you get blood on it?”

“This guy wanted to eat my toes so I bashed him with the skull. Best decision I made for that piece of junk...”

“Your stuff isn’t junk, bro.”

“Tell that to all of Promethea…” He bickered softly when Rhys felt through his hair with his human hand. “It just makes me realize how much of an alien I am here. You created this whole society and that’s so… awesome. And you shouldn’t have to make up rules just for me. I was already against you putting me so high up the chain. It shows favoritism. There are people who have worked here longer than me, who have been trying to get that position and I come along and take their dreams out of the water by existing as your boyfriend. Don’t get me wrong, I love you… god, I love you, Rhys, but please stop stroking my hair you have no idea how good this feelssssssss. Mmm... I’m justing-- I ammm trying to talk.”

Rhys didn’t stop. He gingerly nosed his cheek. “I know, but you’re thinking too much. This isn’t Hyperion where you murder you way to the top. That’s what’s great about starting something new. I’ve made everything clear cut and after a decade of this working, no one has ejected anyone out of an airlock.”

Vaughn chuckled. “That’s good.”

“This place is a much more suitable and comfortable working environment than Hyperion. The only scuffle was on National Donut Day, we had was when someone stole all the donuts and left the box in the breakroom and no one would cough out who did it.”

“It was you, wasn’t it?”

“Shhhhhhh, I’m the CEO I can take however many damn donuts I want. I also got extras, so no one would kill each other.”

“I love you, Rhys.”

“You’re only saying that because I’m playing with your hair.”

Vaughn made a needy whining noise when he pulled his hand away, which made the CEO burst into laughter. “Oh my god! You’re so cute!”

“You’re an asshole.” He pouted as he turned his body away from him.

“Vaaauuuughn. Don’t be like thaaaaat.” Rhys pulled him into his chest and nuzzled his nape with a giddy hum. His hand fell into his hair again and instantaneously Vaughn melted into it’s robotic rhythm. “Is that better?”

He grunted in appreciation, letting his head be led by his fingers as his eyes glazed over.

“I love you, Vaughn.”

His response was more of a glorified breathless mumble than words. Then Rhys started kissing along his shoulder as he took his free hand and carefully dragged it down Vaughn’s chest. His eyes rolled back into his head and he grabbed at the sheets when Rhys caressed his thighs. For a second, the bandit worried about falling into his instincts. He feared that he’ll end up biting his boyfriend’s hand. That’s when he realized Rhys wasn’t in a hurry. His kissing that was leading up his neck was so tender and sweet. With each excruciately soft and slow stroke, Vaughn felt safer in his touch. Sighing, he let his grip on the sheets relax. He whined affectionately and nosed him until the CEO got the message and caressed his lips with his mouth. Vaughn fell in love with Rhys all over again.

When morning came, Vaughn was the first to get out of bed. Before heading off to use the shower, he gingerly kissed the sleeping CEO and moved his beautiful hair out from his face. For a while, he simply gazed at him, thinking how lucky he was to have someone like him in his life. He slowly caressed his finger down his face and then he eased himself off the bed.

He didn’t take too long showering, mostly because he still wasn’t used to the feeling of water pelting his skin. When he dried off and wrapped a towel around his waist, he looked out to see Rhys still in the bed, his hand hanging off the side. His alarm was on the floor. With a content sigh, Vaughn rolled his eyes and continued with his routine. He was glad that Rhys stayed pretty much the same during their time away. He still hated getting up. Vaughn checked his watch. He had five minutes before his shift started. Living with the CEO has its perks, the bandit noted as he pulled his gloves on, my work is only an elevator ride away.

As he made his way to the door, a feverish grumble arose from the sheets. “Vaaaughn?”

He paused midstep. “I’m here, Rhys.”

“Where are you going?” He asked as he sat up.

“Uh, work?”

He swung his legs off the side and stood. He spoke with a tired, husky voice that made his lower stomach churn, “You don’t get leave until I say you can.”

“... What?”

Suddenly, Vaughn was off the ground and pushed into the wall with his legs tied around Rhys’ waist and his hand gripping his shoulders out of instinctual shock. He blinked at how close he was to his face, but mostly at what he was feeling against his hips. The CEO licked his lips, hungrily, “I said. You don’t leave unless I tell you to.”

Of course, his eyes followed his tongue. Vaughn wanted to slap himself. “Christ, Rhys, you’ve been so horny lately.”

“I’ve been lonely for the past ten years, Vaughn…!” He whined and he burrowed his head into his chest. “Let me love youuu...”

Vaughn smiled at that and his hands slowly moved up and to his hair. In the process, his warm palm passed over his port. Rhys lurched forward at the touch, squishing Vaughn against the wall, which the bandit loved more than he would like to admit. The bandit swallowed whatever sound he was about to make as Rhys rubbed his hands over and under his clothes. “You’re going to make us late, Rhys.”

“I don’t care.” He muttered shakily, tearing his jacket off.

“You’re going to in four minutes.”

“You’re going to come in four minutes.”

“Whoaaaaaa,” Vaughn laughed. He made a circle with his finger around his port, making Rhys gasp and lean heavily into his touch. “Speak for yourself, bro. You’re about halfway there.”

His response was sporadic keening moans that was opening Vaughn up from the inside out. When the bandit finally took his hand away, Rhys bit down on his bottom lip and grunted as he tried to calm his breathing, his eyes fluttering.

Usually, Vaughn was the one that pushes Rhys into what he should be doing. Many times he had to relentlessly call Rhys just so he could get to work on time. This time was different. Maybe it was because Vaughn felt the same way. He was lonely, and he had been overflowing with emotions since meeting his best bro again. They were both clearly eager to learn, considering their first night together. But then he realized the best reason.  
Rhys, his CEO, his boss, was stopping him from leaving to do his job for his own company because Rhys, his BOSS, and his clitoris was hard. _That_ was a grade A excuse. And then Rhys looked up at him, his ECHOeye, illuminated from arousal, glittered in the dim room that was lit by sunlight peeking through the blinds behind the CEO.

“Oh, fuck me, you’re so hot.” Vaughn seized his boyfriend’s head and drunkenly caressed his lips along his port.

They were about eight minutes late when they found a stopping point. Running out to the elevator, Vaughn was wiping saliva off his mustache and beard while Rhys darted for clothes. When he stumbled through his floor, greeted his fellow peers (with silent hope that no one would ask about the hickies on his neck), and quickly unlocked his office door, he noticed a package on his desk.  
He sniffed the air. Nothing smelled unusual. He didn’t hear anything coming from the box either. He approached it cautiously, his back hunched. He lifted the package off of the desk and sniffed it again. The box had Rhys’ scent. Deeming it safe, he tore it open with his fingers and gasped. It was full of small paper mache skulls with a note on the bottom. He plopped down on the ground and emptied the box and he grabbed the letter from the floor.

‘I know this isn’t the same as a real human skull but I was thinking that you can recreate your old skull with what you learned. I could only find these kinds of skulls in bunches so I hope this is okay. It just means you have a lot more to paint, right? Your Rhys.’

“Oh my god, he drew stick figures. ‘I’m not an artist but I promise we’re holding hands here’.” He hugged the piece of paper to his face. “I loooove iiiiit.”

The bandit had to admit, this morning was an amazing start to his day, since it all went downhill from there. It didn’t barrel into a spiral all in one day, but as Saturday closed in, Vaughn noticed things were getting stranger.

To be specific, he was strange.

He had no idea how many of his coworkers actually noticed his strange quirks. Vaughn himself never noticed them. It was until one of fellow accountants, who was delivering paperwork, piped up while he was in his office.

“Can I ask you a question?” The blonde, Vaughn squinted at his name tag, Phil inquired as he handed off the files. His eyes kept jerking up to the giant mural behind him.

“Yes, I painted that.” Vaughn answered, bluntly, opening the binder. “And yes, Lorelei said it was permitted as long as it’s not genitals.”

“Oh, oh, noooo that’s not even close to what I was going to ask. But I do love the use of colors. My son’s an artist too so I know a bit about color theory from him.”

“Ah, uh, thank you! Thanks.” The bandit straightened his back, sliding the binder onto his desk. He smiled, gleefully. “Ask away!”

“Where are you from?”

He tilted his head in confusion, “Uh… Pandora? Why?”

“I thought so! I just wanted to compliment you on how well civilized you are! I mean, it’s only been for days and you’re doing so well.” Phil complied with a pointing hand gesture. “You do still have a couple of kinks to work out but, hey, no rush.”

“Civil…?” Vaughn complete the word from how tainted it felt on his tongue. He tried to keep his smile up. “Ah, kinks? What kinks?”

“Oh, you know, how you eat. It’s like watching those animal documentary shows. You kind of eat like a skag that’s been starved for a month. Then there’s the way you socialize, that one’s not totally weird because everyone is different, but you definitely cannot pick up on a lot of social cues, _especially_ when people want you to stop talking to them. Then there’s--”

Unbeknownst to Vaughn as he listened to his coworker attentively, his hands steadily curled into fists until his fingernails broke through skin. The pain didn’t kick him out of his rage-ridden trance. His face didn’t show it. What Phil was looking at was stoic expression but behind that face Vaughn was on the brink of tackling him as he impatiently waited for Phil to end his ranting until he couldn’t anymore.

“Are you fucking finished?” He barked, which made the accountant jump.

“Did... I say something to offend you?”

“Yeah, you offended my fucking existance for five minutes straight.”

“I wasn’t trying to insult you. I was giving you constructive criticism on how to get better.”

“That was NOT constructive criticism. It was--”

Phil scoffed, raising his voice higher than him. “Are you seriously taking it out on me because you bandits can’t handle critic? I want an apology right now, _Vaughn_, before I go complain to head office about your shitty behavior over something you asked me to clarify. I know my rights!”

“I can take critic.” As Vaughn opened his mouth again, Phil took it as his turn to speak.

“Then what are you so mad for? I’m just telling you what you should fix about yourself.”

Vaughn wildly gestured at him. “Right there! That’s why I’m mad! I don’t want to fix myself!”

“Well then, you clearly need some therapy. You’re a COV and you always will be a COV. A danger to our society and this company! If you don’t apologize to me right now, I’m going to the top, you know, your boyfriend.”

“But I’m not a--!”

“Unlike you, he’ll listen to me! After he sees how impossibly you are, I hope he breaks up with you.”

Vaughn slammed his hands down on his desk, blood splattering across the wood, and he snarled with his teeth bared. Phil tumbled backwards, crawling on his hands and feet as Vaughn vaulted over his desk and slowly approached him with his fingers dangling like claws.

“Vaughn? Vaughn, hey, uh--heyheyheyhey.” He fumbled with the door. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry about what I said! I swear!” 

Vaughn lunged.

Screaming at the top of his lungs, Phil scampered out of his office with the feral bandit gaining on him. As they broke out of the hallway into a room of cubicles, which was immediately disrupting by Phil’s shrill screeching. Out of fear, the accountant tried to dart around the area. 

Eventually, it led Vaughn losing his balance and slamming into a cubicle wall, crushing it with his weight and tearing down the connecting walls. As he scrambled for leverage, someone grabbed a hold on him. “Whoa--whoa! Easy, Vaughn, c’mon, it’s Joseph! What the hell is going on--?”

Vaughn tore into his neck with his teeth, blood spurting out in every direction like a B horror movie. More blood curdling screams and staggering of feet filled the room. Doors slammed and the water cooler toppled over. After ripping parts of his skin off, the bandit grabbed him by the shoulder and threw him onto the ground. Darting around with wide alert eyes at the frightened faces around him, he stomped his foot and faked a lunge with his maw open, which aroused another set of screams as everyone moved as far away as they could from him. He licked the blood off of his lips and shuddered at the taste that turned him on.

The realization finally dawned on him. His feral gaze vanished as he stood up straight. Everyone was staring at him. All the people who he thought were his friends were really people who labelled as that one strange coworker. And it showed. There was no friendly worry for his health. No one spoke. Phil was right and he was nowhere to be seen. He felt something wet in his beard. He didn’t have to look at it to know it was blood. 

Vaughn looked to Joseph, who was on the floor clutching his open neck, and he stepped towards him with his hands out in concern, “Joseph?”

He gave out another shriek and promptly fainted. The bandit quickly eased away, holding his hands back. 

Covering his face, he fled the scene. He took the stairs down and when he landed on the ground floor, he hurriedly dashed for the singles bathroom and locked the door. The knob was drenched in blood. The bandit flipped his hands over and gawked at the large holes in his hands from how hard he dug his nails. 

He pulled at his hair and beat his head against the door. “I’m! So! Stupid! Rhys is going to hate you, you dumb fuck…! This is all your fault. This all my fault…! Why did I say yes? Why…? I shouldn’t be here...”

He slid onto his knees and wepted. His mind was tortured. He didn’t black out during his episode. He was acutely aware of what he was doing and what scared him was that he was in full control of it. Despite everything he told himself, repeating in his head that it was beast that gained control every once in a while, but it wasn’t. He could have stopped himself before it got too out of hand, but he didn’t. He wanted to bite Phil. He wanted to claw his eyes out and drag him by his foot with his teeth. He wanted an apology. Everything Phil pointed out wasn’t something to be worked out to him. It was part of who he was as a person, what he took pride in. It gave him individuality from other bandits. Except, Vaughn has always been socially inept when it comes to new people and he has tried to work on it, but the therapy at Hyperion wasn’t the greatest. Rhys or Yvette weren’t good teachers either. So he coped.

Did everyone here hated him because he talked too much or was it just the way Phil worded it? Vaughn couldn’t tell nor did he care. They definitely hated him now. He still wanted to tear into Phil’s skin for making him feel like garbage. He didn’t want to kill anyone. Vaughn never saw that in his nature, but watching someone squirm with thick crimson liquid running down their shaking body... He rubbed the blood out of his tearful eyes but all he could see was red.

He blinked hard. “I’m the worst...”

_BANGBANGBANG_

Covering his mouth, Vaughn pushed himself under the sink and watched the handle fumble around as a loud shout echoed the small room, “Vaughn, I know you’re in there. It’s Lorelei. Rhys is with me. We need to talk. Open the door... Vaughn.”

Vaughn held his breath.

“Vaughn.” She knocked again. “I said open the door.”

“Lorelei, don’t be aggressive.”

“He bit a guy!”

“I know what he did but he wouldn’t do that… deliberately. He couldn’t have. He’s probably scared. L-l-le-let me try, okay?” Rhys knocked with more courtesy. “Hey, Vaughn. It’s me. I just want to know what happened, bud. You all gave us a bit of a scare there, hah, uh… Could you open the door, please? So we can talk? Please, don’t be scared, this is just going to be a peace-- peaceful talk. It’s only-- It’s definitely only us. Are you okay, Vaughn?” He tried the knob again but to no avail. He heard something gently brush against the door as his voice carried on, breaking apart on each word. “Vaughn, please say something… Please. I need to know if you’re okay.”

He didn’t. He couldn’t. He buried his face into his knees, praying that they would leave him alone.

“Rhys, move.”

The door busted open as a boot kicked into the bathroom stall. Lorelei stepped inside, looking around in confusion until she found a mass under the skin. “There you are.”

Vaughn wailed incomprehensible words out of fear, pressing himself further into the corner. Lorelei was taken aback, her eyes wide.

“Vaughn…! Hey, I’m not going to hurt you. See?” She sat down on the tile and carefully inched towards him with her hand out. As she crawled closer to him, he growled at her from the back of his throat as his lips curled back, gaining a wild look in his eyes.

Quickly, she jerked her hand back. “Okay. You definitely do not trust me. Rhys-- Bloody hell, you’re green!”

“There’s so much blood--hic… Oh, god, I tasted that.”

“Swallow it.” Lorelei hissed, “He needs you.”

“Giiii-- guh, give me a second...” Eventually, Rhys stepped into the stall and sat on his knees. His eyes shrank at the sight of him, which made the bandit squirm more. Whimpering, he hid his face from him. Rhys slunk forward. “Aww, Vaughn… Please, please don’t be scared. It’s just me. I’m not mad at you.”

“We just want your half of the story.”

“Yeah, exactly. Let’s get your name cleared, bud.”

“There’s no point.” He moaned, his voice croaking from dehydration. “Just fire me and send me back to Pandora.”

“I’m not doing that!”

“Yes. You should. I wanted to hurt him, Rhys.”

“But why? Who?”

“Phil Callaghan… he hurt _me_... He wouldn’t let me explain myself.” Vaughn growled as he continued, his tongue dripping with disdain. “People from Pandora are _civilized_, granted not a lot of them but I am! I’m--! I’m not some fucking merciless animal like some of those bandits down there! O-okay, fine! I go feral sometimes, but only when I absolutely need to be. It--it’s self defense! I-I did it out of self defense! He kept going on about… how I need to work out my _kinks_. They aren’t kinks… I-I’m proud of who I am… I had to be. It’s the only thing I had down here. It’s what separated me from everyone in a good way! It made me a leader. I’m not a leader here… No one looks up to me. I’m… They all pity me for being-- me.” He gasped, tears flooding his eyes. “Now everyone is terrified of me... I’m dangerous!”

“I’m not scared of you.”

“You should be!” He shouted, glaring at him. “You of all people should be scared of me! You should dumping me! I bit you. You have no idea how many times I had to hold myself back when we were in bed. I can seriously hurt you!”

“But you didn’t.”

“I still can.”

“You won’t.”

Vaughn tensed up. “Don’t you dare test that. Rhys! Rhys, don’t you fucking do it.”

Lorelei grabbed the CEO by the shoulder before he had a chance to move. “This isn’t a good idea, Rhys.”

“Yes, it is. I’ve known him my whole life. I trust him.”

“You shouldn’t...” Vaughn whimpered. “Would you just listen to her and leave me alone?”

“I’m not leaving you.” Rhys barked, his eyes glued to him. “Let me do this. He won’t hurt me, Lorelei. He can’t.”

The bandit let out a low rumbling growl. “Don’t count on it.”

After a moment’s hesitation, she released her grip. Rhys silently thanked her and pushed himself closer to his boyfriend. 

Shoving himself into the corner, Vaughn keened as he begged, “Stop! Goddammit, Rhys, you don’t know what you’re doing!!”

He put his feet into Rhys’ chest to hold him back but Rhys used his cybernetic arm to toss his legs aside and he forcibly yanked him away from the wall. Instinctively, Vaughn’s fingers curled into claws and he aimlessly swatted the air. 

Rhys caught him by his jacket and dragged him up to his face. “You want to not purposely miss this time?”

“Stop scanning me, you piece of shit!” He tried to pry his fist off his clothes. “Let me go!”

“Make me.”

“Fine!” He drew his hand back, ready to strike through his face, but he froze. His brain stopped all connections. He couldn’t breathe. All he could feel was the blood flowing into his heart, that pounded fervently against his ribcage. Vaughn shook uncontrollably. He wanted to move, but nothing responded. He was stuck.  
Rhys didn’t react to his pause. He sat still and waited. Vaughn watched for his ECHOeye to start glowing again, but it didn’t. It was perfectly silent. His hardened expression didn’t yield as he finally reached and gingerly wrapped his fingers around Vaughn’s poised hand. Vaughn hitched and inhaled sharply at the gentle touch. Rhys brought it close to his face, affectionately stroking his thumb over his fingers, and kissed his knuckles. He kissed them again. And he kissed them again. And again. He was halfway up his arm when Vaughn’s brain caught up with his body and the bandit hunched over, panting.

“Rhys, what are you doing?”

Rhys lifted the bandit up onto his lap. His hands hung loosely at his hips and he felt around until he found the spot he was looking for right above Vaughn’s hipbone and massaged his thumbs into it.

Instantly, Vaughn’s entire body slacked into the CEO. He let out a resigned whine, “How can you still kiss me like this?”

“Easily.” He kissed his up neck, around his cheek, and planted one last tender kiss upon his temple and stayed there, whispering into his ear. “I love you so much, Vaughn. Come here, let’s clean you up and get you some nice warm clothes.”

“Rhys, what about--” Lorelei gestured outside, where Atlas soldiers were waiting. “You know.”

“You heard him. It was self defense.”

“Joseph is in the ER!”

“Lorelei, you put a scoop down someone’s throat because you didn’t have your morning coffee.”

Defeated, she simply nodded for a while until she shrugged her shoulders. “Yup. You’ve got a point.”

“We’ll handle this later.” 

“You mean you’re going to make me handle this.”

“I mean, yeah, that’s kind of my thing.” He put his fist out and she nudged it with hers. “I’ll come meet you later.” 

Rolling her eyes with a smile, she stood up and exited the stall, waving at soldiers. “Okay, everyone. We’re done here. Back to your posts.”

Lifting Vaughn up as he stood, the CEO parted the puzzled and concerned crowd of soldiers by walking through them and continued towards the elevator. Vaughn clung onto him like his life depended on it and in a way it did. Rhys had no idea how he was going to fix this. His boyfriend traumatized his whole department. Vaughn had to be the one to go and clear the air if he wanted to. Rhys didn’t want him to leave. He didn’t want him to be in pain either. He had enough of that at Hyperion. He had enough of that his whole life.

Rhys pushed into his bathroom and turned on the shower. He tugged on the bandit’s arms. “It’s ready for you, bud.”

His fingers clutched his vest tightly, his legs squeezed his sides. He whimpered pathetically when Rhys pried his limbs off. He held his hand and looked up at him, his lip trembling. Red tears still trailed down his cheeks.

“Ohh, Vaughn. Hey, I’m not going anywhere.” Rhys surveyed his bloody outfit and felt his stomach do a flip. He didn’t want to imagine how his face looked. “Ugh... Do you want me to get in with you? It’s big enough for both of us.”

Vaughn nodded with a little affirmative noise.

His feral behavior made sense to Rhys. He never said it before all of this for he was afraid of making his boyfriend self conscious. He could tell Vaughn was trying to act like he used to, but he still slipped. Rhys had seen the way he sniffs his clothes and gotten attached to his pine scent. He rubbed his face into it like he’s trying to get it into his skin. It was endearing. Not as endearing as how Vaughn wiggled his body before pouncing onto him to embrace Rhys whenever he was particularly happy, like that night he found the box he sent to his office. The skull he painted for Rhys was sitting on his desk as he scrubbed the blood out of Vaughn’s mustache. He also wiggled when he was aroused but that was more in the hips and it was aggressive but the pressure was not too unbearably hard. His feral side of him shone brightly in bed and, he wasn’t going to say this to Vaughn any time soon, Rhys found it incredibly hot.

He had no idea why. It could be from a multitude of reasons. Vaughn has tried to keep up his side of their dirty talks but it always ended up with him growling or panting with his tongue out. His growling was nothing like he heard today. What Rhys was used to was more of a grumbling purr than a defensive snarl and Rhys thought it charming. It told him that he was doing a good job. In fact, Vaughn was doing that right now. With his eyes closed, he purred as Rhys draining the blood reminisce from his beard. As much as he wanted to smother him with kisses and tell him how much he loved him, the CEO knew this was not the time. There was still pain lined on his face. 

He pulled on his chin a little and Vaughn complied by opening his mouth. The blood on his teeth was mostly gone from him probably licking it off, since he hadn’t seen him spit anything out while they were bathing. That provoked his thoughts to ponder about how hard that bite was. He didn’t get to see the injury unlike Lorelei. He only heard that the victim was going to be fine. He didn’t lose too much blood. The only other injury he had was that his arm got dislocated in the fight. He wanted to tell Vaughn it was nothing fatal, but he knew that wouldn’t help.

It got him thinking how Vaughn’s aggressive nature. He was always a little hostile, especially at Hyperion, where you had to be ready to kill to survive every second of the day. Rhys wondered if he took that to heart while he stayed on Pandora and let it thrive. Was it something he enjoyed? If they were on Pandora instead, where the situation would be the opposite, would Vaughn be more than happy to show off that side of him, because it was necessary?

Rhys never defined that behavior as weird. It was odd at first but he grew accustomed to it in a short amount of time because it was from Vaughn. He trusted him. If only his peers knew him well enough like he did, this may not be such a big issue.

He flinched when he saw Vaughn inches from his face. He must have been using his nose and forehead to get his attention. He would do the same thing when he was sleepy. Everything made so much more sense now. 

Vaughn looked down at the rag that laid stagnant in his hand then back up at him. Rhys followed and stared until it sparked into his brain. “Oh! Oh, sorry, Vaughn. I guess I zoned out. I was… I think I understand you a lot more, but there’s one thing I don’t get.”

His head jerked back slightly and tilted, his eyebrows knitted.

“How come you bit me during sex?” He inquired, rolling the shoulder in question, which still had some healing teeth marks on it. “Was that self-defense?”

Vaughn glared at the wound. “Nnnno. It wasn’t. It was just instincts.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I… I was overstimulated.”

“So you wanted me to stop?”

“No!” He chewed his cheek in thought. His hazy eyes told Rhys how badly he didn’t want to have this conversation. “I wanted you to keep going.”

“Is it a dominance thing?”

“I-I don’t know! Maybe? Why are we talking about this!”

“Bro, I just want to understand what’s going on.” 

He sighed shakily, unable to meet his gaze. “Okay… okay… I… I like the smell of blood. I like tasting it. I… get _off_… on it. I bit you so I get on more of a high and that was wrong of me. I didn’t ask or anything I just did it and I really hurt you.” Vaughn rubbed his forearms. “What I did before was because I was pissed off. Phil kept putting words into my mouth. He called me a COV. He wanted you to break up with me. And I just got so… fed up that I decided to defend myself physically.”

“I would have flipped my shit too if he told me that.”

“What’s worse is that I invited it. I let him talk me into it. He was confusing me and I didn’t think he would be analytical of me, I guess it comes with the field, considering… nevermind, that’s off topic. He was trying to help me even though I thought I didn’t need it. What I did wasn’t right. I really hurt people.”

“Vaughn, if he said that to you while I was in the room. I would have stopped it too.”

“Yeah, but he would listen to you. You’re the CEO. I’m an assistant manager.”

“You’re still his superior. I’ll bring that guy up to my office and have a chat about respect.”

Vaughn exhaled. “That’s not going to help, Rhys. If you’re making me stay here, I’m going to have to change who I am.”

His heart winced. “You want to leave?”

“I-I don’t but Phil’s right I’m a danger to this company. I can still hurt you or anyone on accident if I’m not careful.”

“I refuse to believe that.”

“Jesus Christ, Rhys, talking to you is like talking to a brick wall sometimes.”

Rhys scowled, “I’m trying to talk sense into you.”

“Your sense is already hard enough to understand. I have to run it through twelve translators in my brain to figure out what you’re trying to say. You can’t fix this, Rhys. This is who I am. I fucked up. I’m… I’m fucked up!”

Rhys was not going to let Vaughn turn this conversation into an argument. He took a deep breath. “You’re not fucked up. I know this is low grade in comparison to you but hear me out, there’s a point. Everyone including you has told me that I have the weirdest taste in food. I like a mixed flavors. I’m basically a walking controversy. I’m comfortable with that _but!_ I also have things that I am… less than, well it’s not that I’m not proud of it, it’s who I am. I’ve accepted that part about me. It’s just very personal that only me and um… select people who specialize in it know about it. And you’ve become one of the few people I’m telling this too. Yay.” He said, unenthusiastically. “Vaughn, I’m very kinky. Like, you have no idea how kinky I am. It’s kind of… suspect at times. I’m not going to tell you what I’m into-- like, if you think the foods I like are disgusting, you’ll find that this is the exact same. I’ll just keep it very broad and say BDSM, but anyway...”

“Not to kill the mood but after all I’ve told you I think that’s fair if you tell me a few.”

“Uhhhh, mmmm, later, let me finish. If people found out about what exactly I’m into, my career is pretty much gone. That’s why I keep it very hushed, but I kept doing it because… I was really lonely.” He cleared his throat. “My point is that, no, I’m not going to fix you, because there’s nothing to be fixed. But we can help control your anger so that this doesn’t happen again.”

“Rhys, you know, you could have just said that I have anger issues and go from there.”

The CEO blushed. “I wanted to make you feel better...”

“I know.” His heart fluttered at his genuine smile. “This is why I love you, though. You telling me all this really does help. Thank you for trusting me with that, bro. That means a lot… And you know I’ll love you even if you’re into weird shit. Honestly, whenever you’re comfortable telling me, I don’t think I’ll be that surprised.”

Rhys snickered. “I think I’ve tested our friendship with the weird shit I’m into our whole lives that I’ve desensitized you.”

“Eh, I’m just used to it.”

He smiled a little in return. “Back on topic, what do you think would uh... I’m thinking out loud here. You really like my cologne. Would that help? Wi-with-with um, anger, would you having that on you help?”

“I’d get used to the smell if I wear your stuff.”

“No-no, I mean like, you like spray it on your hand and when you feel like violently biting someone’s head off, you sniff it.”

Vaughn snorted, which lifted a heavy burden off of Rhys’ shoulders. “I’m willing to try anything, bro.”

“Cool, because I don’t want this to haunt you. I know you want to stay here. And for the record, don’t listen to what anyone says. They may think they know you but I’m the only person here that really knows you.”

“That sounds almost possessive, Rhys.”

“I do get possessive about my Vaughn from time to time.” His giddy grin making its way to his lips made what he attempted at a sexy voice sound completely silly. “I love it when you leave but I hate to watch you go… Hold on, did I do that backwards?”

“Rhys, you’re a dork and I love you.”

“I love you too.” Rhys replied, somewhat sheepishly. He carefully stood up and turned off the shower. “Ahem, I think we’re all good here. I need to call in a few people. Give Phil a talk. Make sure nothing was released outside of HQ.”

“Oh…” Vaughn awkwardly sat there as the CEO drew back the screen door. He rested his arms on the side of the tub, watching him dry off. “What should I do?”

“You stay here for now. Uh, in my room. Not in the bathroom. I mean, you can stay here if you want to like air dry or something. My bed doesn’t like water.”

“I’ll pass.”

After drying off his body, he put the towel around his neck and he plugged in the blowdryer. As the minutes ticked by while he teased and pulled on his hair, Rhys noticed that Vaughn didn’t stir. He stopped the dryer and gazed over to see Vaughn watching him meticulously. “You need help getting out, bud?”

“Nnno, it’s just, uh, my drying routine is kind of embarrassing.”

“Alright, I’m going to set up some ground rules here-- Number 1: nothing we do here, in my room, is embarrassing, okay? That goes for everything in general. If you think what you do is embarrassing, do it. No judgement here. Seriously.”

He smiled at how Vaughn’s head slid below his folded arms. “What did I do to deserve someone like you?”

“Exist.”

“Nooooooo!” Vaughn moaned, covering his face.

“Yeeeeeeeess!” Rhys echoed, laughing. He crossed over and peered down at his boyfriend curled up in the tub. “You gonna be okay, bro?”

“No, you killed me. I’m dead now.”

“Awww, who am I going to spend the rest of my life with now?”

“Rhys, stOP!”

“What do you mean ‘stop’??”

“You’re hurting my heaaaaart. I can’t take how sweet you are right now.”

“We’ve been through so much together, Vaughn. Nothing is going to stop our friendship or stop me from loving you. You got that, bro?”

“Ooooooowwww!!”

Rhys snorted into laughter and he pushed on his shoulder. “You stop being cute! You’re so distracting.”

When the CEO returned to the sink to finish drying, Vaughn closed the screen and feverishly shook off the water like a moist jabber. He flipped his long hair back and got out, grabbing a towel from the cabinet above the sink. He nudged Rhys with his hip. “No offense, but most of that is on you. I have never tried to distract you.”

“That’s not true. You move your hips a lot when I’m around.”

“Rhys, my pants are kind of tight. That’s why I move around like that.”

“... Oh.” He glared at Vaughn through the reflection. “That doesn’t prove anything about me.”

“It proves that you like my hips.”

“It proves that you’re distracting!”

“Rhys, you would be begging me to distract you if you knew how I’d go about doing it.”

“Oh yeah? Humor me then, dear Vaughn.” He said with tease as he added gel to his hair. “How would you distract me?”

“I’d come visit you during my break and interrupt whatever you’re doing.” 

“Uh-huh.”

“I’d shove everything off your desk, sit on it, then I’d pull you closer to me by your tie.” 

Vaughn grinned when Rhys’ hands halted in mid stroke. He waited for the CEO to show that he was finished imagining that. Eventually, he heard Rhys swallow and his expression twitched as he followed through the stroke. “Oookaay.”

“Maybe take the tie off all together and wrap it around your wrists. Put them above your head. Get on your lap.” He giggled at how his ECHOeye flickered and shifted. It always did that whenever Rhys was positively aroused and overwhelmed with information. Vaughn tugged on his towel and effectively wrapped it around his waist. Not glancing over at Rhys, he whistled his way out of the bathroom to fetch some fresh clothes.

“Ffff-fin--finish tha-- the-the, th-the thought. Vaughn? Vaughn?”

“Nah, I think you’ve heard enough.”

“Vaaaaaaughn! Damn you! That’s all I’m going to be thinking about!”

“And with that you just proved my point that you let me distract you.”

“You--! _You_!” He grunted in frustration. “When this is all done, I’m getting you back for this.”

“Oh man.” He sarcastically sighed. “Oh, nooo.”

“I mean it!”

“Uh-huh.”

“Ohhohohohooo, you think you’re so high and mighty now but the Rhys train is a-comin’.”

“The Rhys train?”

“Yeah, choo choo, bitch. I’m gonna wipe the floor with you.”

“Please, _please_, never utter the words ‘choo choo, bitch’ to me, EVER.” Vaughn managed to say in between gasping laughs. “I swear to god, if you do that-- if you even THINK about saying that while you’re on me, you’re sleeping on the couch waaaayyyy over there by your desk.”

“I can’t believe you’d make me sleep with the fishes. You know how much I hate floundering around when you try to act koi. You shukin make me feel like a clownfish. Do you think I’d get some good Lion_head_ from--”

Vaughn nearly gave himself whiplash when he turned to look at him. “_STOP_.”

“HA! I GOTCHA!”

“You--” He wiped his face. He was still laughing, even though it became wheezy at this point and he was having trouble catching his breath. He couldn’t stop. He had no idea how Rhys was so good at making him feel a million times better, even during rough patches he had to go through himself. It amazed him. “God, I love you.”

“I love you too, bro.”

While Vaughn was alone in the bedroom, he wasn’t sure what to do with himself. Rhys didn’t allow him to do his work, and he couldn’t eavesdrop on what was going on in his office, since whatever voices carried to the door were already quiet. He did hear some muffled yelling at one point that gave him a stir but after that there was nothing until he heard the elevator. He wondered what Rhys was planning. He wanted to know what he was saying, what excuses or lies Vaughn had to memorize when he got to working again. He paced the bedroom floor, ringing his hands. He hated being in confined spaces. It made him want to knock over things and crawl at the walls. He plopped down on the mattress and inhaled deeply. 

He wanted to make it up to his coworkers. He could paint something for them. No, that would take too much time and he didn’t know any of them well enough to know what each individual person liked. 

“I might be thinking too broad...” Vaughn admitted, combing his hair into a bun. “Maybe, I should just get food. People like food. Maybe, donuts. Apology donuts… But that just doesn’t… FEEL right. I wish I could just do some pushups and it’ll all be better. But that’s weird. Everything I do is weird.”

He wanted to gnaw on something but he didn’t want to get slobber on any of Rhys’ things. So he laid there with his hands above his head and chewed on his lip, wondering if any of this is actually worth the trouble. He could call the Vault Hunters, get some outside help, but this wasn’t their business and he didn’t want to put more weight on Rhys by doing that. His mind was running in circles at this point. It didn’t help that he was also hungry.

He didn’t want to bother Rhys with that either or Lorelei for that matter, but he didn’t want to sit on his ass and not do anything. That’s what he continued to do anyway until his eyes fluttered to a close and he fell asleep.

When his clock struck five twenty-eight, he was woken up by the smell of meat. As his eyes opened, he saw a mass hovering over him. He couldn’t see him very well but he could recognize Rhys from his silhouette.

His breathe brushed against his skin. He sounded exhausted. “Wakey, wakey… hey, bud.”

“Choo choo?” Vaughn muttered sleepily, rubbing his eyes.

Rhys chuckled. “Yeah. Ah, you hungry? I got you takeout.”

“You didn’t have to do that, bro.”

“Just eat it.” He felt a warm paper bag get pushed into his arm.

Drowsily, Vaughn sat up beside Rhys and already was scarfing down his combined lunch and dinner. He muffled a thank you as he finished off the first leg.

Rhys merely hummed. “I got good news.”

For a moment, Vaughn paused. His words shook him out of his sleepy trance and made his stomach clenched. “Oh yea?”

“Mmm… I went to our ER and Joseph’s doing good. Most of the bite is already healed. They even got his shoulder back in place. I got to explain everything to him and he seemed to take it well, probably because he was really high on pain pills but he didn’t sound like he had anything against you.”

“That is what pain pills do, Rhys. You were delusional too when you came back from your top surgery. I’m sure when he’s stable he’ll start cowering when he sees me.”

“Hmph. Anyway, you should still visit him. I’ll go with you whenever you want… I made sure everyone was aware of your treatment. Lorelei stuck around to eavesdrop and so far so good. People are still a little weary but I think they’ll welcome you back in but uhh, Phil on the other hand, yeah. He didn’t take it so well. I got him in my office and he wanted to file a lawsuit for attempted assault.” There was a pregnant pause.

“What did you do about it?” He leaned over and saw that his eyes were barely open. He lightly nudged him with his elbow and Rhys jolted.

“What?” 

“What did you do about Phil?”

“I, um, I fired him.”

“Rhys!”

“Vaughn, he wasn’t listening to me either. He wanted results and I told him off. Professionally.”

“Professionally yelling?”

Now that his eyes fully adjusted, he could see his face twinge. “... You heard that?”

“Kind of. I couldn’t make anything out.”

“Good.” He shifted so that he wasn’t sliding off the bed and placed his hands on his lap. “He was trying to put more shit on you than you deserve. I had to bring Lorelei in to settle our… debate.”

“I told you, people are going to think you’re showing favoritism.”

“I don’t fucking care, Vaughn. You didn’t do a goddamn thing he said you did. He was trying to take advantage of me. Lorelei showed us your reports, your records, everything I have on you to shut that asshole up. I can’t sit there and listen to someone trying to frame you just so he could get more of a paycheck. It’s greedy. I hate greedy people.”

“And you just let him go so he can tell all of Promethea his side of the story? Do you want a public outrage?!”

“He’s been taken care of, Vaughn. We don’t get to worry about him anymore.”

His mind went to dark places. “Rhys… Did you kill him?”

“I hacked into his record and ruined his image. No one out there is going to believe a word he says. No one, fucking NO one messes with you and gets away with it, not while I’m alive. Even when I die, I’ll come back to haunt their sorry asses until they apologize to you!” He panted, his tense shoulders deeply extenuating his anger. “No one messes with you.”

His food was left forgotten on the bedside table. Vaughn lightly touched his hand, which somehow still made him flinch. He put a hand to his face and drew his gaze over to him. His skin was swollen around his eyes. His ECHOeye whirled when he looked at him. Vaughn drew him closer to him, letting him rest on his forehead. “Oh, Rhys, you look awful. You need a break.”

“Can’t.” He paused, inhaling. “Work.”

“Work can wait five minutes. and if something happens, I’ll let you know, okay? Please.”

“I’ll be fine. I just hate getting yelled at.”

“I know you do.”

“I hate that I can’t just calm down...” His voice cracked at the end. His face finally twisted to how anxious he felt inside. He rubbed the tears out of his eyes and whimpered, “I hate myself sometimes.”

“Shhhhshhhhshshh, Rhys, don’t be hard on yourself.” He took his hands and stroked the sides of his face with his thumbs. “Please, rest.”

For a while, the CEO didn’t respond. His eyes were half closed and Vaughn was beginning to wonder if he had fallen asleep on him. His mind changed when Rhys gently tugged down on his wrists and stood up. He tugged on him again and Vaughn let himself be guided out of the room and through the aquarium. When he was released by his desk, the accountant followed him with his gaze. Rhys wandered over to the window and lifted it halfway. The waft of fresh salty air filled his lungs. Rhys walked to his desk and pull out a drawer. From his angle, Vaughn could see what was inside. There was only one thing in that drawer and it was a box of cigarettes.

His jaw dropped. “Rhys...!”

“Oh, would you fu--” Rhys put his palm to his head and pulled on his hair. “It’s hemp. Not addictive. I-it-it-it’s a last resort for me when I-I have a lot of anxiety and none of my other coping works… and I’m a big ball of anxiety right n-now. It-i-ti-ti-it forces me to remember to breathe.” He put one in his mouth and put his cybernetic finger up to the end. The tip of the finger opened and a small flame spurted to life. When the cigarette was lit, the lid closed and Rhys shook the smoke out of his hand. “I have a lot of fears, Vaughn. A lot of them are probably irrational but they can keep me up at night, y-you know?”

Vaughn stood there, rubbing his arms as Rhys slumped into his chair with a hand to his lips.

He breathed in the fumes and exhaled smoke through his nose. “Like with Zer0. I haven’t heard a thing from them yet and it’s been a week. It’s worrying me. It makes me worried for your safety too. You have no idea how bad I felt when I left you all by yourself on Pandora, but you looked so happy there. I was scared for you. You found your calling and now I took that away from you. I took your freedom and put you back into a place you hated.”

“R-Rhys, this is different. You’re in charge!”

“Vaughn.” He almost snapped. He sighed, rubbing his temple. “Are you really happy here? Are you happy about any of this? Please don’t lie to me.”

Vaughn picked at his sleeve in thought. Unsure how he should begin, he decided to think out loud. “Honestly? I have no idea. I know that I’m happy to be with you again. I’m happy that I get to kiss you and see you more often. I’m happy that you… see me how you do. I’m happy with all you’ve done for me here, letting me sleep with you, giving me a job, clothes, food. I haven’t seen real money up until now. I’m really thankful for that. I know I was happy on Pandora. I was glad to be free from Hyperion’s clutches and lead a clan of my own. It was my calling. But the thing is Rhys is that I was struggling there, like I’m struggling here. I lost a lot people I cared about down there. I’ve seen death countless times. I only did what I did so that I could keep being seen as their war chief, their king. After the Calypsos, I realized how jarring everything is and I didn’t like it. I couldn’t take it anymore.”

Vaughn paused to breathe. His stomach felt heavy as if he had swallowed bullets. His throat was sore and itched for this awful conversation to stop. He didn’t like confronting his feelings. Most of the time, he didn’t understand them. He glanced towards Rhys, to see him staring, expectantly, leaning forward slightly. Vaughn carried on, picking at the wooden desk. “Coming here was a good change for me, but exhausting. Being around you is easy, I can slip into being myself around you and act like a whole decade didn’t happen. But it did happen. So much happened over ten years and, god, it’s so jarring. Working in an office makes me realize how different I am to these people. I’m not their definition of normal. I don’t think I’ll ever be. And it’s hard. Living here and living on Pandora are very difficult spaces for me...”

“But?” Rhys asked after a long pause.

“But.” He repeated, walking around his desk. He stood in front of the CEO and put a ginger hand to his chin. “I want to keep trying. Just because there’s some bumps in the road doesn’t mean I’m going to quit. You said it yourself. We’ve been through so much together. It doesn’t mean that I’m going to break up with you because I’m frustrated about it.”

“You’re staying?” His voice trembled.

“I’m staying.”

A relieved sigh of smoke emitted from his lips. He pulled on the accountant by his hips and Vaughn accordingly sat on his lap, putting his arms around his neck. The lemony smell from his cigarette hung in his nose. It made him want to cough but he held it down. Rhys cradled him, idly looking over his desk and at the messy assortment of reports that have yet to be read. 

He kicked his legs up onto the tabletop, which disrupted a few papers, and let out a shaky exhale. “I’m sorry for yelling at you.”

“And I’m sorry for… everything.” He took the cig out of his mouth, kissed him, and put the joint back in one swift motion that was enough to make Rhys fall in love with him all over again.

And that got him thinking. “I think I am a little possessive over you.”

“No offense, Rhys, but I’ve figured out that you’ve been possessive of me decades ago, when you had hair that went down your back... Honestly, I never minded that. It made me feel like I was wanted.”

His face flushed. “Of course, you’re wanted. I don’t like the thought of losing you. I don’t like not seeing you. And I really don’t like it when you leave before I wake up in the morning. We just found each other again and we started this relationship because of that stupid article. If that didn’t happen, I would be alone with a hangover in my bed, moping over you, and wishing for something more, and I can’t _stand_ that thought. I felt like the biggest douchebag in the world for leaving you like that. I still feel like that sometimes. I never thought I could love you this much.”

Vaughn eyed him, stroking his thumb along his jawbone. “... Hey, Rhys?”

“Yeah?”

“... We were attached to each other, weren’t we?” 

“Inseparable.” He agreed.

“I always thought it was becoming one sided. When you left, I was devastated. I kept moving around because I was afraid that if I didn’t I would just stop altogether and get stuck there.”

“It was never one sided, bro. Never.” 

“Yeah, I know that now.”

“God, I could say a lot of things right now, but it wouldn’t change anything.”

“You’re right. I know what we can say now, though.”

“What’s that?”

“I’m glad that we’re doing this now… I don’t think I’ve ever been happier than I am with you.”

Rhys inhaled sharply. He took the cig out and pressed his lips against Vaughn’s, opening his mouth and letting the smoke flow out and into him. Vaughn drank it in as he absorbed himself in the CEO’s cold metal touch that carefully drifted down to his waist. His cigarette hung loose from his fingers as Rhys tucked Vaughn closer by pulling up his knees, which brought the rolling chair up to the desk. 

Vaughn’s soft tender voice repeating his name after each lapse in touch was giving him chills. 

“What’s wrong, bro?”

“Nothing’s wrong.” Rhys let out a trembling whimper when his hand combed over his port. Vaughn pressed his mouth up against his ear. “I just want to make up for all the time I didn’t get to say your name.”

Rhys didn’t get any more work done that evening.

. . .

Rhys didn’t allow him to work the next day so that everyone in the office could continue to process the new circumstances. Phil was fired, Joseph was still at the ER, and Vaughn was cooped up in Rhys’ bedroom with his head in his hands. He hated his anxiety and he knew that Rhys could see it as well, even though he didn’t say anything about it. They were walking through campus together way before the sun rose over the horizon. Rhys had to keep taking his fingers out of his mouth to get Vaughn to stop gnawing at his nails.

“It’ll be okay, man. I promise.”

“You can’t promise that...”

Rhys frowned. “I guess not, but I’m trying to make you feel better. Not everyone is against you. They’re your coworkers, they love making fresh faces feel welcomed.”

“I almost tore his face off…!”

“Vaughn, we talked about this.”

“I know! I know we did. I--” He let out an angry sigh. “This is nerve wracking for me, okay.”

“That’s why I’m here. You know, for emotional support.”

“I thought you wanted to come along to make sure he doesn’t hurt himself trying to get away from me.”

“Weeeeeeell... wwwww--we-we’ll see what happens.”

They walked into the ER and found Joseph in the waiting room with gauze that wrapped around his neck like a giant choker. He appeared to still be in a bit of haze for when he saw them he tried to stand up but gravity took hold on him and he fell back onto his chair. He grunted and readjusted himself. “Morniiiing, siiiiiir.”

Immediately, Rhys put on a cheery persona as the two walked over to him. “Heeeeeyy, man. You look a lot better! How do you feel?”

“I feel great. They pumped me full of that stuff into my arm. The-sniff- they ssssaid I could start working again this afternoon. I just can’t move my head all that much. I think I’m going to be kind of slow for a while.”

“Oh, don’t worry about your progress. Your boss here understands, don’t you, Vaughn?” He said, patting him on the back, which made him jolt forward.

Vaughn stood up straighter and felt a panic attack rising up when Joseph squinted his eyes at him. He pointed a shaky finger in his direction. “You were trying to bite Phil.”

He swallowed, “Bro, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to do this to you. I’ll do anything to make up for it!”

“Man...” Joseph hiccuped. “If you could actually do this to Phil, that’ll be awesome. That guy was a fuckhead. That guy kept forward-der-fording stuff to my printer and wasting my paper. Prick.”

“You’re not… you don’t hate me?”

“Have you been using my printer?”

“No.”

“I don’t hate you.”

“I… okay.” Vaughn glanced over at Rhys who was trying not to smile too wide. He cleared his throat. “Um, let me make it up to you still. Do you have anything you like, like food, those little car toys?”

“Cream cheessssse.” He slurred, “I love cheeeeese. I can eat that shit like ice creammmmmmm, maaaan.”

“Uh, alright. I… I think I can do that?” Vaughn looked over at their CEO who was trying very hard not to laugh. 

The two stayed a minute longer but Joseph was too delusional to try to keep up a conversation. Vaughn felt much better when they left. Stuff like this was completely out of his comfort zone but he was glad Rhys was there. If he wasn’t, Vaughn knew he wouldn’t be able to talk properly and leave in a hurry with the idea that he made everything worse. Rhys forced him to slow down, in a good way. While it was still awkward for him, he was happy he got through it. He hoped this was the start of a better week.

It was getting there. The first two days back was utterly uncomfortable for everyone. Slowly but surely, things fell back into its original places. People continued to chat while he was in the room instead of pausing to look at him or move away. He was being greeted again and he could tell some of the more extroverted employees were going out of their way to make him feel more appreciated because they could see him trying. It was definitely a whole separated experience from his days at Hyperion. He was starting to make real friends here. He liked it.

Shutting the door behind him, Vaughn careened down the small hallway that soon birthed in a large room of cubicles. Right before he entered, he heard a familiar boisterous laugh that blossomed butterflies in his stomach. Rhys was here. Nearly dropping his paperwork, he crashed into the wall and carefully peered over the corner to see that over by the water cooler the CEO had drawn a small crowd. Vaughn could physically feel the addicting energy Rhys always brought into a room when he was in a good mood.

However, Vaughn felt intimidated by it. It wasn’t his scene. He shifted his files back into place and pushed into the room with his head down. He managed to cut into another hallway and enter the first door on the left after a swift knock. “Mx. Carter?”

Carter briefly looked up from their computer screen. “Ah, Vaughn. Just put those on that chair if you please.”

He looked at the chair by the bookshelf and obeyed in a sharp manner. He rubbed his hands over his jacket. “Uh, Mx. Carter? Can I ask you a question? It’s quick, I promise.”

“Go on.”

“Our, ah, CEO is here? Outside? Right now?”

“Oh!” They smiled at the screen. “Don’t worry about that, Vaughn. The department isn’t in trouble. It’s a monthly routine thing he does, mingle with everyone. It raises morale. I think it’s sweet.”

“Ah, that… yes. Okay. I was just curious. Sorry to bother you.”

“I’ll see you later, Vaughn.”

“Yeah, you too.” He quickly stepped out of his supervisor’s office and tried to steady his breathing. He didn’t want Rhys to see him this troubled. He didn’t want to talk about it. He didn’t want to kill his mood.

“Vaughn?”

“Ah!” He coughed as he faced Carter. “Yes?”

“Since you’re here, can you give this to Rhys for me? Thanks.” They handed him a folder and closed the door before Vaughn had a chance to speak.

He inhaled deeply and forced his legs to walk back to the main lobby. Rhys was leaning against the wall, chatting it up with a water cup in his hand. His anxiety ruled out his intentions and he couldn’t move any closer. He stopped and hovered nearby as he subconsciously bended the folder. He didn’t have to do this now, did he? He was going to see Rhys later anyway. As he turned, his blood ran cold. “I see you, Vaughn! Get over here, silly!”

Gritting his teeth, he glanced to see a young lady in the group by the watercooler beckoning him over. Great, Rhys saw him. He couldn’t run now. Actually, he could make a break for it, but that resulted in Rhys cornering him in his office and a lot of personal questions from his peers and Vaughn couldn’t decide which fate was worse.

He pushed himself to walk over to the circle, unsure what he should be looking at. He forced a smile as he placed himself beside Rhys. “Heeyyy, uh, what are we talking about?”

“We were just talking about you!” the same lady as before, Phoebe, patted him on the back in an attempt to loosen him up.

“Haha, am I in trouble?” He tried to come off as casual, but his voice was too strained, not that anyone noticed.

Rhys affectionately touched his shoulder. “No, you’re not. They were just telling me what happened during break. You know, what you did with the coffee.”

“Ohhhh, thaaaat. Hah, haha ha, yeah, that was so funny.” Wanting to flee from this conversation, Vaughn quickly produced the folder before Rhys could say anything more. “Uh, these are from Carter.”

As the CEO grabbed for the folder, he also leaned down and briefly pecked his cheek. “Thank you.”

His face turned into a bright shade of red. His coworkers’ giggles and short sweet stories about how they do similar things to embarrass their sweethearts fell on deaf ears. Why did he have to glance at him with such a sweet smile.

“Y-y-you-you’re welcome… s-ssssiiiir.” He replied softly, taking the opportunity to slip away. Rhys gave him a distraction, which cost him major embarrassment for the rest of the day but at least he was heading to his office in peace.

He was still antsy. He tried to not let anyone know. The only person who he could hide from was Rhys. His peers were easy to trick into thinking he had nothing wrong. His feral nature wasn’t hard to control. All it took was one sniff and he felt fine, but there was an urge building. It was a habit for lack of a better word. It was not always stimming from anger. He needed something to hunt, something to fight. He needed to sink his teeth into it then he would be good until the next urge. He yearned for the thrill. 

It was at the point that it was all he could think about. He mindlessly accepted Lorelei’s invitation to a late dinner around eight in hopes to distract his mind. Twenty minutes in and it was not working. It was harder trying to eat like a ‘normal’ person. He wanted to enjoy his time he was spending with Lorelei. He truly wanted to get to know her better, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t even remember what they had been talking about. He felt ready to lunge at something. Anything that moved.

“You okay, Vaughn?” She inquired, “You’re shaking.”

“I am?” Shit, he didn’t have an excuse ready. He bit his lip and lowered his voice to a whisper. “Lorelei, listen… Lemme think about how to phrase this… And don’t tell Rhys this. I don’t want him to know this yet… And I know this is going to sound crazy, but, uh, I need to fight something.”

Her eyebrows raised slightly and she gave a little thoughtful hum that concerned him. She minded the open patio umbrella over her head as she stood up. “I think I can help with that.”

“You what?”

“Don’t look so daft. I’ve been itchin’ to know how you fight. I got somethin’ to show you.”

Curious, Vaughn tailed after her to the more isolated side of the campus. He followed her to a blank wall. She looked at his confused expression with a smile. “We’re here.” 

“Okay… Why do I get the feeling that you’re going to shank me?”

“You’re not that far off.” He watched her tap her fist on the metal in a rhythmic succession until a portion of the wall shifted and moved to the side.

“Man, you guys really love your secret doors.”

“You mean Rhys really loves secret doors. This is Zer0’s place but they’ve been sharing it with me lately, because I need a place to spar.”

Vaughn walked in with her and gawked at the enormous size. It was very Zer0, with the dark colors and the collection of swords and rare guns that lined the walls. There was a lot of torn up and sliced through robot parts that took up a corner of the space. 

“This is quite the place. They’ve got that assassin aesthetic really going for them.”

“Mmhm.” Lorelei led him the middle of the room and took off her gloves, stuffing them into her back pocket.

“What are we doing?”

“We’re going to spar.”

“... What?”

She looked at him, wryly. “You just said you wanted to fight something.”

“I-I didn’t mean you!” Vaughn gnawed his lip. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Come off it, I can take it.”

“I-I know you can! Rhys told me the stories. I just don’t like--”

As Vaughn rambled on nervously, Lorelei huffed and crossed over to him. He was being sweet, but she needed to see what he could dish out for her own morbid curiosity. Zer0 always held back when they sparred, for some reason. She wanted a real fight and she knew Vaughn could do that. She figured he just needed a nudge, like how Zer0 did. 

Lorelei removed his glasses, hung them at his shirt, reeled back, and punched him.

The force sent him stumbling with a hand on his cheek. His jaw cracked when he moved it and he shuddered at the shot of pain. He rolled his shoulders as he let the urge fester. He faced Lorelei with a feral driving gaze and she grinned, taking a stance. “Come on, Vaughn, don’t hold back.”

“I won’t.” He growled, shivering again. 

He hunched his back, his arms dangling close to the floor. Suddenly, he advanced towards her with unexpectant energy that caught her off guard. Stepping aside, she watched him jerk back around by whipping around his momentum through a quick slide and bounced up with his hands. As he pounced, she grabbed his arm and used his momentum against him to shove him in the ground, except Vaughn didn’t let go of her. He pulled her down with him and her back crashed into the marble floor. Straddling her, he darted for her face with his mouth open. She put her arm up and he tore down into her forearm, shaking his head around. She grabbed his head with her other hand and jerked him to the side. When he collided with the floor, he let her go and got up on his hands and feet. He shook his body like a wet dog and looked at her, expectantly with blood dripping from his tongue. It took her a moment to figure out what he was doing as she caught her breathe. He was waiting for a signal to either stop or keep going.

In her mind, she thought it was something beyond his control, but it definitely was. She shuffled to her feet and motioned with her fingers to come at her. Snarling, Vaughn complied.

Lorelei had never been to Pandora so the only thing she could correlate Vaughn’s fighting approach was to a ratch. There wasn’t any thinking behind his lurching movements. At first, everything he threw at her was unpredictable until she started treating him like a ratch. Similar to the insect, both always tried to pounce on her or bite her. He never used his hands unless she tried to throw a punch and sweep into a kick. She forced him to keep using his hands to throw him off his now predictable pattern. It was confusing him and she was beginning to throw him under the bus, which must have ignited something in him. 

Becoming more vocal in his noises, he started to grab at her and using his teeth to pull on her hair. She had to place her hands on either side of his face to keep his jaws away from her. He was getting harder to handle. He was squirming a lot more and he wouldn’t give her any distance between them. Although exhausted with adrenaline pumping through her, she in return continued to give him a hard time by going for the arms and swept him off his feet. The third time she did this, Vaughn threw himself onto the ground and bit into her shin. She attempted to kick him off while keeping his hands aloft but she almost lost her balance in the process. So she bent over and socked him in the neck, which forced him off. 

Finally, she put a safe three feet away from him and doubled over to breathe. Lorelei moved the soggy hair from her eyes and looked up at the accountant. Vaughn had tossed his shirt, jacket, and shoes aside which left him with just his pants. He had barely broken a sweat but he was gasping and licking the blood from his teeth. Maybe it was a trick of the light but Lorelei could have sworn his eyes were glowing. 

Although her leg ached, she still had some fight left in her along with the desire to beat up the little buff nerd for bragging rights. This time she ran at him, hurling out a battle cry. Vaughn lowered himself closer to the floor, wiggled a little, and pounced. They met halfway with their hands clasped, wrestling against their weight and Vaughn was winning. He forced her onto her knees and tried to aim for his nose. As she swung her head, Vaughn pushed and accidentally gave them both a tidal wave of head pain.

Vaughn collapsed onto the floor in a groaning heap while Lorelei put a hand on the wall to keep steady.

“I think we should call it there.” She whinged.

“Yup.”

“Can I make it up to you with coffee?”

“Coffee. Good.”

“Okay. Gimme a tic...”

When the room finally stopped spinning, Lorelei patted his back, which earned her a grateful hmph, and she sauntered into the kitchen side of the room that Zer0 didn’t seem to use.

Vaughn flipped over onto his back and laid there for a while, listening to the coffee maker excrete weird noises. That felt good, like touching himself kind of good. The smell of blood coated his lips and he wanted to feel himself as he licked it off from his fingers. He refrained from doing that while he was around Lorelei. He wasn’t sure how he got into this frame of mind of imagining how Rhys would react to him doing that. Rhys was not the kind of person to think blood is sexy, since he almost vomited when he saw Vaughn covered in it. No, this behavior was for outside the bedroom, no matter how nice it felt to him. He would have to find the place and time to get off without Rhys walking in on him.

“You feel better?”

Vaughn had no idea his eyes were closed until Lorelei lightly tapped the bottom of a coffee mug onto his nose. He blinked hard and sat up. He returned her smile and took the cup from her. “Thanks. I feel a lot better.”

“Great. Honestly, that was awesome.”

“Really?” He asked between sips.

“Yeah, man, you’re relentless! You kept me on my toes. I had a lot of fun.”

“... Me too. I’m sorry for biting you like that.”

“Eh, as long as you don’t give me some kind of infection, I think we’ll be square.”

Vaughn let himself laugh a little. “Yeah, it’d probably be best if you wash that out soon. I have no idea what kind of Pandora germs I have.”

“... You know what, I’ll do that now.” 

“I’m sorry! Did that scare you?”

“Ehhh.” She waved her hand unenthusiastically as she walked back to the kitchenette. “I’ve just heard things that’s all.” 

“You can’t catch radiation.”

“Vaughn, I want you to repeat that sentence and tell me if what you said is correct.”

“No thanks.” Vaughn took another swing to drown his embarrassment.

“Oh, I have missed messages on my ECHO. Oh boy, they’re all from Rhys.”

“Is there an emergency?”

“No, he just couldn’t find us, but he’s wording.” She tossed her ECHO device aside and ran water on her forearm. “He treats everything like it’s a goddamn emergency. I swear, there was this--”

Vaughn jumped at the sound of rhythmic knocking at the entrance. He watched the wall open up and the CEO himself hurried in, looking around. “Lorelei, Vaughn, you in here? I’ve been trying to contact you for--”

His eyes locked onto Vaughn. The realization came a little too late that he was covered in blood again. He staggered to his feet. “Rhys! Br--bro, I can explain…!”

“Rhys, I finally got a sparring partner!” Lorelei interjected, excitedly, “You should have seen him! It was awesome. Anyway, what did you need?”

“I was uh, come-coming-- I-- uh-- in here to-tte tu to about… sssssss…? Summ…? Some--sum--something?” His hands fumbled together as he was unable to pull his eyes off of Vaughn’s bare chest.

“You don’t remember what it was do you?”

“Noooooo...”

“Uh, Rhys? You’re really looking down there. Are you okay?”

“Uh! I! Know that! Shut up!”

“That does not answer my question.”

“God, you’re a useless bisexual, Rhys.” Lorelei said, shaking her head.

“I-- oh, I thought you… um… Fuck.” He coughed. “I’m not useless.”

“Yes, you are.”

“Shut up...” His face was red from embarrassment. He closed his eyes and massaged his nose. “Vaughn.”

“Yes, Rhys?”

“You… come? Go me? Out? It late.”

Vaughn tried his best not to start laughing. “Uh-huh.”

“You have fun?”

“I did.”

“Cool. Uh… Lorelei?” He gave her a thumbs up which she returned. “Shut up.”

“Okay.” She cackled. “Goodnight you two.”

“Night, Lorelei! Thanks for the coffee.” Vaughn waved after gathering his clothes and shoes. 

He trotted after Rhys who was halfway out the door. As they walked to the tower together, Vaughn slipped his clothes back on, juggling his coffee as he did so. He kept his shoes off so he could feel the cool concrete underneath his toes. When he looked to the CEO, the dark let him see that there was a lit cigarette perched on his lips. He breathed in the lemony smell that blended well with his coffee. Silence with Rhys was a rarity, but Vaughn didn’t try to push him into a conversation. He nuzzled his shoulder with his head and Rhys countered by putting his arm around him.

It was a side of Rhys that was new to him. Some of his hair being somewhat out of place, his stoic, relaxed expression, and the way the cigarette sat on his lip made him feel tingly inside. He liked it as much as he liked breaking it. “You know, you’re kind of hot like this.”

His breathing hitched, a puff of smoke escaping from between his teeth. He glanced at him, his lips pursed and talked out of the corner of his mouth. “H-hot like what?”

“Just how you look right now, with your hair, your eyes.” He leaned into him. “You being... _you_. I love seeing you comfortable. You’ve come a long way.”

“... Thanks, man.” Rhys squeezed his arm. “You’re hot like this too.”

“Pfft, did you forget that there’s blood on my face?”

“No… It suits you.”

It was Vaughn’s turn to blush now. “Oh. That’s why you were stuttering.”

He grunted, his lips twitching down.

“I’m playing with you, bro.”

“I know. I’m still turned on.”

Vaughn snickered. “Should I even ask what we’re doing tonight?”

Rhys hummed, glancing down at him. He simply moved a bit of his hair out from his eyes and gazed lovingly at him. Vaughn felt warm all over and it wasn’t from the coffee. “First, I’m getting you into bed with me.”

Vaughn felt karma coming back him at full force for when he messed with Rhys a few days ago. He sipped the remains of his coffee nervously. When they entered the elevator to his office, he prompted him further. “And?”

“I’m going to take off your clothes, take off mine. Then I’m going to cuddle your face off. Give you some shotgun kisses, play with your hair, praise you about your progress, touch you all nice until you fall asleep. Then I’m going to confess my deep burning love for you.”

“Rhyyyyyys…!”

“Did you know that I love you a whole lot? Like, so much, dude.” He was beaming as he gazed at his best friend with so much love. “I think I’m addicted.”

Lost in his eyes, Vaughn stepped into him. His hand stroking and fumbling with his tie. “Why don’t you show me?”

Taking a deep breath, Rhys held the smoke as he took the cig out. He caressed his cheek and exhaled into his open mouth. He felt Vaughn melt into his lips. The accountant whined when Rhys broke off to take another drag, and stood on his toes, leaning into his body for balance as he wrapped his arms around his neck. His tongue slinked out and lapped at the blood that got on his lips and chin. As their lips met once more, it dripped with tender affection. Taking his cig-less hand, Rhys explored over his torso and gently applying pressure in certain places, which made Vaughn produce all kinds of hot sounds that flattered his ego.

“I love you, bro...” Vaughn softly moaned, smoke pouring from his mouth. “God, I love you.”

Smiling, Rhys scooped him up and carried him out the elevator while Vaughn hung onto him, licking his face. “I love you too, bro.”


End file.
